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Migrant workers awarded record $220,000 in sex harassment case

A Wheatley, Ont. man and a fish processing plant have been ordered to pay a record $220,000 in compensation to two Mexican migrant workers after a human rights tribunal ruled they endured a “sexually poisoned” work environment.

The two sisters — identified only as O.P.T. & M.P.T. under a publication ban on their identities — were among 39 workers from Mexico and Thailand whose complaints were referred to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. All others, including seven that were of a sexual nature, were settled earlier.

In a 90-page ruling this week, the tribunal concluded the two sisters endured unwanted sexual solicitation and advances and discrimination in the workplace.

Allegations by one complainant against Jose Augusta Costa Pratas, Presteve Foods Ltd.’s former owner, included unwanted sexual touching and sexual penetration on three occasions, the ruling said.

Tribunal adjudicator Mark Hart’s ruling came more than seven years after the alleged incidents — and four years after Pratas, who is in his 70s, pleaded guilty to simple assault and had other sexual assault charges withdrawn in a criminal court in London, Ont., in 2011.

“We are thrilled with the decision. The complainants had been waiting for a long time to have their experience acknowledged. That somebody finally heard them is a vindication,” said Niki Lundquist, lawyer for Unifor, the union which represented the women.

“People are inclined to think it’s just a bad person doing terrible things, but this is a systemic problem. Canada’s temporary foreign worker program is creating these conditions for women and subjecting them to sexual violence.”

A Presteve spokesperson said the company has been under new ownership since 2010 and could not comment on the allegations or say if it would appeal the decision.

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“The events referred to in the (tribunal) decision occurred before the current ownership and are in no way connected to the current ownership which has been committed to respecting human rights and dignity in and out of the workplace,” said Erik Grzela.

Presteve’s lawyer Gino Morga and Laura Joy, counsel for Jose Pratas, did not respond to the Star’s requests for interviews.

The respondents had asked the tribunal to dismiss the complaint because it was filed more than a year after the last alleged incident, but the adjudicator ruled the delay was incurred in good faith, citing O.P.T.’s lack of English and knowledge of her rights.

The respondents also suggested the woman was paid for performing sexual acts and that the contact was consensual. They argued O.P.T. fabricated her allegations against Pratas to get immigration status and remain in Canada.

However, the tribunal found a letter from Pratas to the woman after she’d left the job showed the employer’s “continuing interest” in her despite her having gone to the police and laid assault charges against him.

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O.P.T., 36, who was awarded $165,000, and her sister, M.P.T., 30, who was awarded $55,000, welcomed the decision. Both are now permanent residents, O.P.T. in Windsor and M.P.T. in Calgary.

“They harm us and send us home. There is racism underlying their treatment of us,” O.P.T., a widow with two children, said in a statement to the Star.

“Even when we have been humiliated and mistreated, we have to hang on to our dignity. That is all we have.”

Grace Vaccarelli, counsel for intervener Justicia for Migrant Workers, said the case cries out for a systemic overhaul of the foreign workers program.

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“The biggest source of these workers’ vulnerability is the closed work permit. Without labour mobility, they have no choice but to remain in an abusive situation.”

After leaving Presteve in May 2008, O.P.T. sought help from a legal clinic to retrieve her passport, work permit, health card and other belongings from the employer. While pursuing her return airline ticket and unpaid wages from Presteve, the tribunal heard she worked as a waitress and dancer at a strip club in Windsor to support herself.

“A significant award of compensation for injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect is justified, in my view, on the basis of O.P.T.’s particular vulnerability as a migrant work,” wrote tribunal adjudicator Hart.

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